Lantaka real vs fake

[dafunky1]

I recently purchased this and it appears real but I have some concerns with the bore. It looks to me like there is a layer of bronze that wraps inside the bore and the inside past that "might" not be made of bronze. It shows up pretty well in the pics. It doesnt look like it could have been fired like this because the muzzle looks to be smaller than the bore as a result. Ive noticed in other lantaka pics that its pretty common for the muzzle to be gnarly looking like this one is though but Ive never seen the inside of another one. The touch hole is round but not drilled with a drill round. It also angles slightly forward but is not clear all the way through. The muzzle measures to go 1/8" past the touch hole. It measures 47.5" and weighs 70 lbs. There is also what appears to be a piece of rusted steel inside the cascabel. Maybe for attaching the tiller or maybe the end of a steel pipe used to fake the bore? The trunnions appear that they were added separately. I don't know if that's normal or not.

Could anyone with any lantaka experience give me their thoughts? Thanks ahead of time!

 

[ChrisPer]

Nice! Where is Lantaka from? Looks like what I have seen called a Moluccan gun,probably the first guns to come to northern coast of Australia.

The bore wouldn't faze me - obviously you had seen it before you bought it too. I suspect it may have been poured around an iron tube in the foundry to save boring costs. That could also tend to give the ideal bore-outwards crystallization of the molten bronze, too, depending how they set it up.

 

[robinghewitt]

The Dutch arrived at the Spice Islands and asked what the locals wanted to trade for. The answer was antique bronze swivel guns and the Lantaka was born, along with the Dutch East Indies.

My Lantaka bore looks a lot like yours, I think it is just scale, suggest you fire it.
http://www.robinhewitt.net/boom.wmv

 

[vetarms]

I would contact these folks and let them have a look as they have some experience telling real from fake. I definitely would not fire it until it had been thoroughly checked out.
http://www.cannonsuperstore.com/fake_cannons.htm

All the best.